How
to find the flow rate of the water in your house
Finding
your water flow rate
This
is not as easy as one might expect. There are no
hard and fast estimates of the water flow rate in
any particular building.
Even
a plumber or engineer would only be guessing. They
would have to work it out on a case-by-case basis.
However,
provided you are prepared to roll up your sleeves
it is not that hard to get a fairly
accurate estimate of the flow rate in your house.
The
best way of doing this is to actually get a bucket
and stop watch and time the flow from each
tap or shower head. this might seem silly but it
will be accurate.
The
trick is to estimate the maximum amount
of water you might use at any one time.
That will be your maximum flow rate.
Flow
rate considerations
There
are various factors to bear in mind.
For
example your water heater may only allow one hot
supply at a time.
So
whereas you might have three bathrooms, actually
only one can be used to run a bath or a shower at
one time.
| Power
showers can do 40 to 50 Litres per
minute.
Toilets
might flush several gallons but these come
from the toilet's cistern/tank which then
fills up slowly. |
A
cold water tap, turned on fully and
running vigorously enough to throw small
splashes out for several feet is running
at about 17 L / min. |
|
Pump
/ water pressures and flow rates
Don't
be tricked by the reported pressure of your mains
water or your borehole or well water pump (if you
have a private water supply).
Just
because a pump can work up to a certain rate does
not mean that is the flow coming into your
house. This is set by the amount of water you are
using in the house at any given time.
Put
simply the water only flows when you turn on your
taps. The number of taps you have on at any one
time is what will affect your flow rate.
When
you have got an idea of your water flow rate see
the table below for choosing
your best UV water filter
|
